This invention relates generally to circular knit, tubular one-piece blanks and garments formed therefrom, such as briefs and panties, and to the method of forming the blanks and garments. More particularly, the invention relates to a knitted, seamless, tubular blank having a two ply crotch section and the forming of a body garment.
Heretofore, undergarments such as panties and briefs have generally been made from a plurality of component parts configured to the desired shapes and then sewn together. Such garments made by the "cut and sew" methods are expensive to manufacture due to the labor costs involved in accurately cutting and seaming the components and due to the waste of materials.
Efforts have been made to reduce labor and fabric waste by knitting a plurality of blanks as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,946. The side-by-side knit blanks are in the form of a tube which is slit walewise to form two blanks. Each blank is then folded and sewn resulting in seams along both sides of the garment. U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,115 discloses a seamless knit tubular blank wherein the blank is provided with visual cutting guides formed during the knitting operation, which serve to facilitate an operator in removing fabric portions from the blank to impart the requisite shape for forming the garment therefrom. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,156, an undergarment is made from a rotary knitted blank having a body section and discreet depending panels. Knitting is continued upon spaced groups of needles. Portions of the panels are overlapped and sewn together to shape the blank into a garment. In each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,043,156 and 4,624,115 the portion of the garment is formed by sewing together depending front and rear panels of the blanks.